A refrigerator is an apparatus for storing food at a low temperature and may be configured to store food in a refrigerated state or a frozen state. The interior of the refrigerator is generally divided into a refrigeration compartment and a freezing compartment. The refrigerator includes a heat exchanger configured to supply cold air into the refrigerator.
Cold air supplied into the refrigerator is generated by a heat exchange action of a refrigerant using a heat exchanger. In other words, the cold air is generated by repeating a cycle consisting of compression, condensation, expansion and evaporation in the heat exchanger before being supplied into the refrigerator. Cold air is uniformly transferred to the interior of the refrigerator by convection and is used to store food at a desired temperature within the refrigerator.
In general, the refrigerator includes a main body having a rectangular cuboid shape with an opening on a front surface thereof. A refrigeration compartment and a freezing compartment may be disposed within the main body. Drawers, racks, storage boxes and the like for storing different kinds of food in an optimal state may be provided in the internal storage spaces of the refrigerator. A refrigeration compartment door and a freezing compartment door for selectively opening and closing portions may be provided on the front surface of the main body.
The refrigeration compartment door and the freezing compartment door may be filled with a foaming body or material to thermally insulate the interior of the refrigerator from the outside. The filling of the foaming body is typically performed after a refrigerator panel and an isolation plate are assembled together.
When manufacturing the refrigerator doors using this method, the refrigerator panel or the isolation plate may be pushed or moved by the injection pressure of the foaming body when injecting the foaming body. In this case, the refrigerator panel and the isolation plate may be separated from each other, or the bond between the refrigerator panel and the isolation plate may be weakened or destroyed. Furthermore, the refrigerator panel and the isolation plate may be separated from each other during transportation or installation, for example.
In order to solve this problem, in recent years, a temporary assembly step is added when assembling the door panel and the isolation plates. For example, the isolation plates are temporarily fixed at an upper end and a lower end of the door panel using temporary fixing means, such as tape. A foaming body is injected into the door. When the foaming process is complete, the temporary fixing means (e.g., tape) are removed.
The process of temporarily assembling and disassembling the door panel and the isolation plate is onerous and inefficient. The increase in steps required to complete such a manufacturing method leads to an increase in the overall refrigerator manufacturing time, and a decrease in manufacturing efficiency.